The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Chinese affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms are close to settling a high-profile dispute that had threatened to complicate the audits and fundraising capabilities of dozens of Chinese companies and U.S. multinationals, according to people familiar with the situation.

A gesture of friendship is at the heart of a courtroom battle, the latest in a string of legal challenges stemming from a crucial appeals-court ruling in December that raises the bar for prosecutors and SEC in proving insider trading.

A top official at the Securities and Exchange Commission has taken the unusual step of saying Harvard University could be vulnerable to legal action from the agency or investors over a corporate governance project.

Emails between two former Wells Fargo colleagues make no reference to insider-trading, but SEC officials are including the emails in their insider-trading civil case against the two men, saying the messages help demonstrate the duo were a partnership in which “each scratched the other’s back.”

U.S. investigators probing Och-Ziff’s dealings in Libya are focused on a multimillion-dollar payment by the big hedge-fund firm they believe was funneled in part to a friend of Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s son.

A former Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services executive filed a lawsuit Friday asking that any Securities and Exchange Commission action against her be heard by a federal court instead of a judge appointed by the SEC.